A contribution to the understanding of confucianism in Vietnam (Final part)

Confucianism, also known as the Way of Scholars or the Teachings of Confucius and Mencius, has a significant contribution towards the Vietnam’s traditional culture. However, from the past to the present, it has often been viewed as a politicosocial doctrine. Indeed, during its existence and development, Confucianism has had a complete system of concepts, rites, and practices associated with ideas of the universal principles and of the mankind which plays as foundations for viewing it as a religion. This article seeks to shed light on the religious perspective of Confucianism and of Confucianism in Vietnam.

NGUYỄN QUỐC TUẤN *

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF

CONFUCIANISM IN VIETNAM

(Final part) Abstract: Confucianism, also known as the Way of Scholars or the Teachings of Confucius and Mencius, has a significant contribution towards the Vietnam’s traditional culture However, from the past to the present, it has often been viewed as a politico-social doctrine Indeed, during its existence and development, Confucianism has had a complete system of concepts, rites, and practices associated with ideas of the universal principles and of the mankind which plays as foundations for viewing it as a religion This article seeks to shed light on the religious perspective of Confucianism and of Confucianism in Vietnam Key words: Confucianism, the Way of Scholars, Confucius, State religion, official religion

5 Ancestor worship

Ancestor worship, as a primary foundation of Chinese religion in general, aims at expressing great gratitude to ancestors This is one of the most important ethical principles in Confucianism Worship means the desirable expansion of life of ancestors in the celestial realm This custom could be found since the ancient time It could be the first Heavenly Emperor mentioned since the Shang dynasty who was the first ancestor to be deified The Chinese now often say that they have a religion of “worshiping Heaven and making offerings to ancestors” with

a very long tradition

While the emperor and top-ranked mandarins were responsible for performing official rites, ancestor worship could be found among the grassroots The dead of a family and of a kin would be in charge of performing this worship They had to be men Thus, ancestor worship

* PhD., Institute for Religious Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

could be found both at both State and grassroots levels According to the common rule, this kind of worship would rely on the bloodline of the performers This was compulsory to both people of the upper class and of the lower class

In rich families, tablets engraved full names of the ancestors would be placed on a separated area within the altar In poor families, the altar was often placed inside a hole on the wall, in the corner of the house where husband and wife would sleep during the night A tablet would be placed next to the coffin of the dead where it was buried That place was seen as the residence for the dead Thus, ancestors made a part of the life of their descendants

In Spring and Autumn, descendants often performed a solemn rituals

to ancestors at which offerings would be food, fresh flowers and votive objects for the the use in the other world The same thing would happen

on the first day and the fifteen day of the month according to the lunar calendar The provision of offerings with foods was an important ritual since it would help to maintain life of the spirit The tablet was also called the “holder of spirit” - a vague concept which was mixed between the Chinese-Buddhism’s view of rebirth and the Taoism’s view of the soul (spirit of the mind) and senses (spirit of the physical body and thinking) coexisted within a man Senses were believed to still embedded within the dead body until the body was total ruined The dead body according to the judgment of Hades (Diyu) would either travel to the Heaven or to the Hell

The Chinese believed that ancestors paid great attention to the fertility of the soil and their descendants’ destiny Thus, it was extremely important to maintain the humanness and blessings from the ancestors by using special and solemn rituals to make sure these entities would not be disappointed and get angry Ancestor worship would cease to exist when the last heir of the family died Therefore, every man had to have a son This was a must and as a sacred principle For example, one of the man’s great mistakes was having no son This was considered as a son’s failure in showing filial piety to his parents Residents within a village often were kin In this case, rich families often built a separated worshipping house for tablets of ancestors Such a house could have hundreds or thousands tablets Tablets were placed in

both the left and the right and all faced South Normally, tablets were only displayed up to 5 generations Beyond this limit, tablets would be stored somewhere in order to save space Ancestors from the 5th generations backwards would only be worshiped as the secondary No offerings would be prepared for them directly

Ancestor worship only began after the dead was buried and ceremonies such as 49th day and 100th day were performed, etc

Thus, ancestor worship is the final important feature of Confucianism as a religion Confucianism, also known as the official religion or State religion, has a long history in China These important contents define the religious perspective of Confucianism which has been not adequately concerned by the Vietnamese However, it is necessary to acknowledge differences between Confucianism with Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, or Catholicism Differences reveal in many aspects as discussed in the first part of this article Confucianism is not

a religion at a glance Yet with a close enough look, we can see that it is not totally different from other world religions

6 Confucianism in Vietnam and in Hanoi

Vietnam is a multi-ethnic nation within which the Viê ̣t (the Kinh) belongs to the majority When mention Confucianism in Vietnam, we talk about Confucianism among the Kinh Of course, we should also pay some attention to the minority group of Chinese Vietnamese in Vietnam

Thus, Confucianism does not take the whole national space In history, the Vietnamese monarchies always tried to expand the Confucianism’s influences over the whole territory Among the King, from the beginning, Confucianism neither became the dominant religion nor equally absorbed among different groups of people, social classes and among men and women Only during 15th -20th century, did Confucianism take the privileged position thanked to the State’s policy Yet in reality, Confucianism had to share the social and mental role with other religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Catholicism Specially, like in China, as discussed previously, Confucianism had also to give way to popular religious beliefs including those originated from indigenous religious beliefs or derived from mainstream religions

The history of Confucianism in Vietnam can be divided into different periods with different contents and historical contexts Despite of such differences, we can still discuss of a whole Vietnamese Confucianism including Confucianism in Vietnam and Vietnamese Confucianism Hereunder are main features of the long existence of Confucianism in Vietnam

6.1 The Chinese domination

From around the 2nd century BC, Vietnam, precisely the northern region of the present Vietnam, became the land under the Chinese domination The domination might begin with the Zhao dynasty Yet not until the 1st century AD was Vietnam invaded and controlled literally Vietnamese territory was divided into Chinese model of administrative units (following models of the Qin and of the later dynasties) That ruling system basically targeted in eradicating the Vietnamese traditional institutions with two fundamental features: the existence of many relatively autonomous villages and the translocal links among local heads However, plans were different from what the dominant had achieved In reality, typical features of the Vietnamese traditional society existed with its own culture This was the social context of the Confucianism during the foreign domination over 1,000 years

During this period, there appeared assimilation and resistance to that assimilation in terms of nationality and culture These two processes also represented a dual transformation On the one hand, it was once said that without the Chinese domination and without influences from Chinese civilization there would be no Vietnamese To say it more correctly, the Vietnamese on the one hand resisted the Chinese ruling forces On the other hand, the Vietnamese accumulated achievements from Chinese civilization for their own evolution The evolution of the Vietnamese led

to the birth of nation-state and the ideologies of national autonomy which was realized in 905 by Khúc Thừa Dụ, then of the national independence realized by Ngô Quyền Ngô Quyền defeated Chinese troops and opened

up the national independence over 1,000 years later

In that context, Confucianism of the Chinese domination of Vietnam (belonging to the North) had specific features in comparison with its whole history in Vietnam First of all, Confucianism, already had a form

of a religion, and because it came with invasion, it basically belonged to

the Chinese rulers and migrants Its spaces of existence were certainly where the Chinese resided, which meant areas surrounding local administrative units Meanwhile, the rest of the Viet still immerse themselves in the old and indigenous system of traditions This was what

we could find during early centuries

Later, during the course of time, with inter-bloodline marriages, and the Vietnamese perception, Confucianism step by step entered the Vietnamese mental life and formed the national Confucianism There were Vietnamese who not only understood correctly fundamental concepts, ideologies, and rites but also participated in examination to become officials of the administrative system in China

Vietnamese official history records had a list of Chinese administrators in Vietnam who had contribution to the formation of Confucian studies and Confucianism in Vietnam Among them, there were three famous characters: Tích Quang, Nhâm Diên and Sĩ Nhiếp The last character was the general administrator in Vietnam that time for

to be introduced into Vietnam The evidence was the establishment of a famous Buddhist monastery in Luy Lâu where Sĩ Nhiếp built his office This monastery attracted the visit of many Indian and Chinese Buddhist monks on their ways to promulgate Buddhism into Vietnam Vietnamese official histories praised Sĩ Nhiếp for his many achievements during his office in terms of administration, science, and religion

Through Sĩ Nhiếp we could see a harmonious relation between Indian religion and Chinese religions in Vietnam, yet Confucianism was still the dominant religion thanked to the favor and leadership of the

administrator Generally speaking, Confucianism, like other world religions, had the role as one of sources for Vietnam’s national culture if

we consider the facts that this religion brought into the nation Confucian qualification examination, the administrative system, ethical and moral standards, scripts, rites, and worldviews

The Confucianism’s influences in Vietnam as both a philosophy and a religion were not much clear All the fundamental Confucianism’s religious concepts and views had been familiar with the Vietnamese upper class That was the primary condition for them to quickly escape from the situation of those who were under a foreign ruler and proceeded

to the position of leaders of movements for national independence Regarding the deification, there were some negotiations between Chinese and Vietnamese indigenous deities Chinese administrators did also worship Vietnamese deities such as Long Đỗ and Tô Lịch In nature, Confucianism as the State religion had not gone far beyond the traditional religious beliefs which based on animalism and polytheism This was true for both China and Vietnam The reason was that Confucianism was basically the religion of the peasants

In short, until 938, the Chinese domination of Vietnam created the reality that Confucianism had deep and pervasive influences on various aspects of the society From 938, the Vietnamese had their own ruler and thus their hidden power was freed The Vietnamese did not boycott all the Chinese influences but preserved what they considered valuable, including Confucianism Now with the new stance, the Vietnamese built and advanced their society

6.2 Đại Viê ̣t’s Independence

This was a long period which began in 938 and ended by 1945 Dynasties and national regimes one by one led and governed the nation, including: Ngô, Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần, Late Lê, Mạc, Tây Sơn, Nguyễn This period can be then divided into smaller periods Confucianism could be called Vietnamese Confucianism with its own development and distinctive features

The Ngô, Đinh, and Early Lê dynasties

From the Ngô to the Early Lê, the regular change of dynasties revealed the fact that there had not been a central regime that was

powerful enough to maintain national stability and unity That was a favorable condition for Confucianism to grow The official historical records only provided little information of some aspects of this growth Achievements from archaeology recently in old imperial city Hoa Lư revealed some information of the Đinh and the Early Lê dynasties It could be said that the most prominent feature was that three religions, including Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, were all present at imperial city of the Đinh and the Early Lê This illustrated that all Three Religions were highly respected at that time

Thus, Confucianism had not been the most dominant religion in this period This was evident in the comments made by a historian under the

Lý and Trần dynasties as indicating that the conferment of many empresses by emperors of the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties did not follow the Confucian rites properly

These examples were among many critics by historians of the later dynasties who had deeper understanding of Confucian's principles Only few information about religious events mentioned in the official historical records such as conferment for Buddhists and Taoists; the formation of shrine for god of mountain; the act of pilling sugarcane on the head of a monk under the Đinh dynasty; decision of setting the emperor’s birthday

as the fixed date for boat racing There was the information about emperor Lê Đại Hành who first performed Royal Ploughing ceremony at Đọi Mountain (Long Đội, in 1007) There were also notes of the journeys

to the north to request Buddhist scriptures from China

During the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties, also from the official historical records, there appeared prophecies which predicted future of the new dynasty These pieces of information only let us assume that Confucian rites had not been systematized Besides, it revealed that there was none academic or scholarly activities and this suggested that religious practices were more prominent than religious teaching and religious studies

Also during this period, the role of scholar-mandarins - the official students of Confucianism - was not dominant as the role of Buddhist monks and Taoists who participated in politics and foreign relations such

as Vạn Hạnh, Pháp Thuận, etc After 1,000 years under Chinese domination, at the early stage of independence, Confucianism could not

be considered as Vietnamese Confucianism yet This only happened after several hundred years later

The Lý, Trần, and Hồ dynasties

Failures in the ruling of the nation under the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties did not mean that Confucianism had no role It was the temporary situation when the national leaders needed just more time to see clearly the role of Confucianism Under the Lý dynasty, Confucianism showed undeniable advantages in the construction and administration of the society which helped creating a powerful centralized regime to unify the nation and expand territories Đại Việt became one of the flourished civilizations that emerged in East and Southeast Asia

From 1009 to the first half of the 20th century was the period of autonomy and independence This was the longest and the only period with centralized-power monarchies in the history of Vietnam Most historians called this time the period of feudalism

During this period of 900 years, there were two times when the independence was interrupted because of foreign invasion The first was the Ming dynasty (1407 - 1427) which terribly destroyed the Vietnamese culture The second was the invasion by the Western colonials (mainly the French) and the Japanese occupation (1858 - 1945) Vietnam was turned into a colonized society but still had the title of a monarchy This

is the main feature of the Vietnamese history with deep impacts on all aspects of the society including Confucianism

The Lý dynasty began a real monarchy in Vietnam It lasted for over

200 years (1010 - 1225) The beginning of the Lý came with the settlement of the imperial city in Thăng Long It was formerly the Đại La citadel built by Cao Biền as the administrative headquarter under the Tang dynasty The reason for the relocation of the imperial city from Hoa

Lư to Thăng Long was clearly stated in historical records in the form of a Q&A session between Lý Công Uẩn as the founder of the Lý dynasty and his top-ranked officials It is now called Thiên đô chiếu (The Edict on the Transfer of the Capital) In that document, Lý Công Uẩn reminded his people of an example in relocation of capital in ancient China At the same time, he used one of the key Confucian concepts the Mandate of

Heaven to advocate that the relocation both followed the Heaven’s will and the people’s desire The Đại La citadel was chosen to be the centre of the nation and would then be inherited by later generations Đại La was said to be the place that met the needs for national expansion and development and avoided mistakes by the Đinh and Early Lê dynasties which neglected the Mandate of Heaven by having chosen the disadvantaged Hoa Lư for the capital city The symbol of the new imperial city was the golden dragon flying ahead of the emperor’s boat This was also the main reason for the name of the new imperial capital: Thăng Long

The establishment of the new capital city had great importance on the Vietnamese’s development It marked the Vietnam’s evolution as an independent land with ideology of autonomy and the aspiration to build

up a larger, richer and more powerful nation At the same time, this event also gave a signal that Confucianism would assume a more significant role in the society and with the State as the national leader chose to follow the Chinese model of State and social administration

From now on, Vietnamese Confucianism began to form itself and became the official religion of the Vietnamese powerful centralized monarchy However, in order to achieve the most respected position under this dynasty, Confucianism still had to co-operate with Buddhism and Taoism thus made the existence of Three Religions (Tam giáo)

It is necessary to review some important points of Confucianism and its features under the Lý dynasty The main reason was that in reality this monarchy framed the State model for the successive Trần and Hồ dynasties

First, regarding the studies of doctrines and education of Confucian scholars, official historical records did not provide any details of the use

of Confucian doctrines Yet we can find some clues regarding the use of Book of Poetry and Book of Documents for teaching-learning and examination It is even vaguer as seen in parts that inform us about contests during Trần dynasty in making annotations Meanwhile, historical records revealed that the Lý emperors asked for Tripitaka from China Private historical records did not provide any further information

It seemed that during the Lý dynasty, the number of doctrines that had been studied and annotated was still very small

However, in 1070, under the Lý Thánh Tông’s reign, the Temple of Literature was built in Thăng Long In deed, Confucius only had a position in the court’s pantheon 60 years after the establishment of the Lý dynasty Historical records read: “By August of the Autumn, statues of Confucius, Zhu Xi and Four Great Disciples were built 77 Confucian exemplars’ images were painted They were all worshiped in four seasons Princes went to that place for studying” This could be seen as a complex of temple, shrine, and school We have no clues of the scope of the Temple of Literature at that time Archaeological findings in 1999 by the Institute for Archaeology proved clearly that the current Temple of Literature was continuously maintained and renovated since the Lý dynasty

The “Stories of Hanoi” in Đại Nam nhất thống chí (Official Geographical and Historical Record of Great Viet) read that the Temple

of Literature “ located in Minh Giám ward, Thọ Xương district towards the south-west of the imperial capital (Thăng Long), had been built up from Lý Thánh Tông’s reign at which Confucius, Four Great Disciples, and 77 exemplars In the back of the Temple, a National university was built for students to come to study The Trần and the Late Lê dynasties followed that model On both sides of the Temple, there stood stone steles engraved names of doctors of all dynasties ”

The truth was that Confucianism at that time had not been dominant

It still had to blend with and travel in parallel with other religions That was shown in examination Generally speaking, two dynasties Lý and Trần always had Three Religions examinations There was information of Confucian students who scored very high marks and this illustrated that studying and taking examination in Confucian doctrines were two separate activities

The year 1075 opened up tradition of Confucian examination till 10 centuries later and it was only dismissed in 1919 There were 183 highest-level examinations and 2,898 persons had been recognized as doctors The first doctor was Lê Văn Thịnh of the Lý dynasty Of course the number of people who studied and sat in examinations was greater However, it is necessary to point out that in the period of 10 centuries adopting the Confucian educational system; there was not any truly Vietnamese Confucian thinker or philosopher No books of Confucian